‘No, No, Power Rangers’ – Just What is Wrong with the New Power Rangers Costumes?

A couple of days ago, we were met with our first glimpse of the new Power Rangers, who will be morphing on our screens next Spring. It is fair to the say that the reaction has been mostly negative. Amidst all the cries of ‘Iron Man’ rip-offs and uncanny ‘Mass Effect’ clones, there is a great deal more to be concerned about in regards to these costumes, reflecting a wider issue within Hollywood blockbuster film-making. 

The notion of bringing the Rangers back to the big screen is one that I, and many others raised on the 90s TV series, very much welcomed in amongst the sea of Hollywood reboots and remakes. The nostalgic gaze can often blind one to that fact that something from the past wasn’t exactly all that great, and Power Rangers is one such property. Reusing footage from Japanese tokusatu ‘Super Sentai’, the show was undoubtedly cheap and cheesy. But for fans, the team of cosmically chosen teenage warriors boasted a lot of charm and thrills. It was a show that featured at its centre an appealing and diverse cast of young heroes, a cast which gave nearly every kid watching a figure to attach to (my favourite was the Blue one).

Here is a reminder of the design of yester-year:

The old Mighty Morphin’ costumes, again, don’t look particularly costly, fully embracing the early 90’s obsession with lycra, coupled with clunky helmets designed to reflect each Ranger’s respective Dinozord. The bright and colourful designs were easily enough to engage with the imaginations of young audiences.

With the reveal of the new costumes, production designer Andrew Menzies discussed the difficulty of re-branding a well known design for a new generation, before elaborating on the exact nature of the suits:

“Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”   

So, let’s take a look:

Initially on the surface, all seems relatively as should be: Red, Black, Blue, Yellow and Pink. Yep. Those are the correct colours alright. But then you begin to look harder. Arguably, these new suits don’t exactly look like an organic alien material (heck, lycra looks more organic), and while they may appear to be ‘edgy’, that go-to buzzword for any reboot these days, there is no denying the lack of originality within the designs. While I can bark all day long about how these suits lack all the personality of the original TV show, I have to accept that this is no longer my generation’s Power Rangers and changes have to be made to ensure that toy manufacturers have something new to work with. But that isn’t the main issue with these suits. The main issue lies more with a concern over the decisions of Hollywood Executives in regards to what they deem acceptable for a film that is ultimately being sold to children.

Within the reboots of similar properties like Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, we have had to endure uncomfortable sexualisation of characters in properties that were once aimed at young kids. Hopes that the Power Rangers reboot would avoid similar issues have been somewhat dashed with the reveal of these costumes. The costumes of the 90s, aside from featuring a skirt on the Pink Ranger, never brought too much attention to the fact that the two of the members were women. Unfortunately, what the 2017 Rangers seem to represent is a step-back in the characterisation of the female members of the Rangers.

It would appear that the new female rangers (played by Becky G and Naomi Scott) are about to give Bryce Dallas Howard’s heel-wearing antics in Jurassic World a run for their money, as their new garbs feature wedge-heeled boots. While wholly impractical for intergalactic butt-kicking, it only goes to highlight concerns with Hollywood and its stereotypical means of coding gender in its characters.

The heeled boots may have been easy to over-look in the long run, what is less forgiveable is the inclusion of bizarrely pronounced armoured breast plates on the Yellow and Pink Rangers costumes. Apparently it is not enough to simply know that two of the characters are female, their gender must be accentuated through both stereotypical and oddly sexulaised means. These are characters who are teenagers, aimed to appeal to a very young audience. Why the hell is the ‘sex factor’ something that is being amplified?

The point I am trying to make is simple: Power Rangers is not a property that needs to be sexualised. It is crazy that we should even be discussing them in such terms. The fact that these costumes have incited such a heated response demonstrates the sheer frustration many individuals have over the treatment of female characters on screen. The film itself may not have the same kind of jeering, eye-rolling male gaze of the likes of the recent Ninja Turtles and Transformer movies, but it is just disappointing to see that the imagery of the new Rangers seems poorly judged and wholly misguided.

Power Rangers 2017 is not the first film to inappropriately sexualise teenage characters, and sadly it will probably not be the last. I may be judging one piece of promotional material too harshly, but the costumes of these particular pop-culture characters are important, and more crucially so is the image they present to young audiences. If these are the kind of elements of that Hollywood producers think they need to add to express femininity, what kind of message does that send out to younger audiences?

The Power Rangers of my youth are a thing of the past, I accept that. But this image makes it hard to be excited for their future.

Power Rangers, directed by Dean Israelite, is set for release on March 24th 2017.